Whom Shall I Send?

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker

Saturday, January 15^th was a day off. I was just home from lunch and playoff football was nearing kick-off. I was in the recliner checking/returning emails. There was a fire in the fireplace and the dogs were curled up on the couch. Life was good…when an emergency news alert popped up on my iPad screen.

Armed gunman takes hostages at Colleyville synagogue…

Colleyville, that’s only twenty miles from my home. I asked my wife if there had been a report of a hostage situation on TV while I was checking emails.

Pam said, “No, but I’ll turn on the captions and switch to a news channel to see if there is coverage.”

The news channel was ‘live’ outside the synagogue. After just a few minutes, I had read the same captions several times and had seen the same looped video from the scene multiple times.

The bottom line was that a gunman had taken four hostages during a prayer service at Congregation Beth Israel. After a short time, I went back to my emails and waited for an update. Pam soon got my attention and pointed to the television as the captions read:

“An armed man could be heard during the live-streamed prayer service interrupting the Sabbath services by shouting and then taking hostages.”

Video showed a SWAT team arriving on the scene with tactical equipment. Soon, camouflaged FBI agents joined the assembly. The SWAT teams looked well prepared. The officers and agents outside the synagogue seemed to be organized and ready for the task. All in all, things seemed to be going well in spite of the difficult circumstances.

I thought of the hostages and the panic that they must be feeling having been taken at gunpoint during a prayer service. And I thought of my daughter, Katie who was working at a church event (also about twenty miles away) as an Assistant Minister. These attacks on religious services seem to be coming at us more often. A quick text indicated that all was well at her event and a sigh of relief filled the recliner.

As with many hostage situations, the coverage was limited to the same view of the outside of the building for most of the day. After 6:00 p.m. we were offered a view of the outside of the building in the dark. It was simply a long difficult day…

Six hours in, one of the hostages was released and after eleven hours of captivity, the three remaining hostages escaped through a side door and the ordeal was finally finished.

I thought of the FBI Hostage Team and the SWAT officers who worked diligently to negotiate, to do their best to provide safety, and to remain focused for those long hours knowing that very often the end result would involve loss of life. My heart went out to them knowing the pressure that they must have felt when faced with the knowledge that they may be put in a situation of taking the life of another human being.

Today, two days later, details of the negotiations, captivity, and escape are becoming public, and an unexpected hero is emerging. It wasn’t a SWAT Team member who rescued the hostages, and it wasn’t the FBI Hostage Team making a dramatic rescue although the expertise of both units throughout the day enabled their opportunity to escape. This situation reminded me of one of my favorite hymns, Here I Am, Lord. The third stanza of that hymn reads:

I, the Lord of wind and flame

I will tend the poor and lame

I will set a feast for them